Azides – Diazonium Ions – Triazenes: Versatile Nitrogen-rich Functional Groups

We have developed a method to detect DNA synthesis in proliferating cells, based on the incorporation of 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) and its subsequent detection by a fluorescent azide through a Cu(I)-catalyzed [3 + 2] cycloaddition reaction ("click" chemistry). Detection of the EdU label is highly sensitive and can be accomplished in minutes. The small size of the fluorescent azides used for detection results in a high degree of specimen penetration, allowing the staining of whole-mount preparations of large tissue and organ explants. In contrast to BrdU, the method does not require sample fixation or DNA denaturation and permits good structural preservation. We demonstrate the use of the method in cultured cells and in the intestine and brain of whole animals.

Selective chemical reactions enacted within a cellular environment can be powerful tools for elucidating biological processes or engineering novel interactions. A chemical transformation that permits the selective formation of covalent adducts among richly functionalized biopolymers within a cellular context is presented. A ligation modeled after the Staudinger reaction forms an amide bond by coupling of an azide and a specifically engineered triarylphosphine. Both reactive partners are abiotic and chemically orthogonal to native cellular components. Azides installed within cell surface glycoconjugates by metabolism of a synthetic azidosugar were reacted with a biotinylated triarylphosphine to produce stable cell-surface adducts. The tremendous selectivity of the transformation should permit its execution within a cell's interior, offering new possibilities for probing intracellular interactions.

The photoisomerization of azobenzene has been known for almost 75 years but only recently has this process been widely applied to biological systems. The central challenge of how to productively couple the isomerization process to a large functional change in a biomolecule has been met in a number of instances and it appears that effective photocontrol of a large variety of biomolecules may be possible. This critical review summarizes key properties of azobenzene that enable its use as a photoswitch in biological systems and describes strategies for using azobenzene photoswitches to drive functional changes in peptides, proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and carbohydrates (192 references). This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2011